On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 20:41:51 -0400, Paul Stenquist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >
> > True Frank, but there were two sides to that story. Those of us who > were using screwmount in the seventies were none too happy to see > Pentax obsolete our lenses. I think the company was torn between being > loyal to their user body and meeting the competition. > Yeah, good point, Paul. In retrospect, 't'would have been better to simply put a bayonet mount on the original Spotmatic. I know m42 users would have been pissed at the time, but there weren't ~that~ many of them pre-Spotmatic. I'm sure the Spotmatic and it's variants brought millions into the world of screwheads. The Spotmatic was so wildly popular, so much a sensation when released that going bayonet from day one would not have lost too many "loyal" Pentaxians back then, and likely would have brought on even more new customers. But, I think that Pentax likely thought that as long as they, the worlds largest slr maker in the world, stuck with m42, they were okay. Eventually, like Sony with Beta tapes, their isolation worked against their interests. That, and the fact that one really needs bayonet to properly align electrical contacts - but who knew that in '64? cheers, frank -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
